SWFTI News

SWFTI helps raise $1 billion for roads

06/16/2004

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By Larry Hannan
ljhannan@naplesnews.com

The organization can take a lot of the credit for getting U.S. 41 widened throughout most of Collier and Lee, said FDOT spokeswoman Debbie Tower.

No matter how you look at it, $1 billion is a lot of money.
That’s how much money the Southwest Florida Transportation Initiative, which goes by the acronym, SWFTI, says it helped raise for transportation projects in Southwest Florida during the past five years.
The money, which was mainly allocated from state Legislature, has helped widen U.S. 41, sped up the planned widening of Interstate 75, and helped build Livingston Road in Lee and Collier counties.
SWFTI is made up of dozens of bankers, developers, builders, real estate agents, and economic development and Chamber of Commerce officials who have been lobbying for road improvements for Southwest Florida.
Tom Conrecode, a member of the SWFTI executive committee, said the $1 billion in funds has helped improve transportation throughout the region.
“We have searched for discretionary funding and sought out extra funding for programs,” Conrecode said. “Rather than work for a bigger piece of the pie, we’ve fought to make the pie bigger.”
Before SWFTI was formed five years ago, there was little coordination among different government entities when it came to transportation projects, Conrecode said.
“The Lee and Collier (governments) would set their priorities without consulting each other,” Conrecode said. “We found SWFTI worked very well in coordinating with the different government entities.”
SWFTI helped prioritize regional goals, such as widening U.S. 41 and building Livingston Road, Conrecode said.
Stae Rep. Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples, said the regional focus is one of the reasons SWFTI is successful.
“They look at the needs of our whole region,” Goodlette said. “Not just Lee and Collier.”
The organization has been remarkably successful at achieving its goals, Goodlette said.
“Prior to SWFTI, Southwest Florida had been shortchanged by the state in its funding needs (for transportation),” Goodlette said.
Mike Rippe, director of the Southwest Florida office of the Florida Department of Transportation, said SWFTI has been a key player in getting transportation funding for the area.
“They have helped get money for Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Collier County and everywhere else in Southwest Florida,” Rippe said. “I definitely think they’ve helped everyone look at the area in a more regional way.”
Rippe said SWFTI’s strength is that it only focuses on one issue.
“Their sole purpose is transportation. They have no other issue,” Rippe said. “I see that as SWFTI’s biggest strength.”
David Ellis, executive director of the Collier Building Industry Association, agreed with Rippe.
“The beauty and genius of SWFTI is their single-minded, laser focus on getting transportation funding dollars,” Ellis said. “They have no other goal.”
Groups in other areas of the state have tried to duplicate SWFTI’s success. Those groups failed because they focused on multiple issues, Rippe said.
The organization can take a lot of the credit for getting U.S. 41 widened throughout most of Collier and Lee, said FDOT spokeswoman Debbie Tower.
“We’re very quickly approaching the time when we will have a six-lane U.S. 41 throughout Collier and Lee,” she said.
Collier County Transportation Administrator Norman Feder praised the work of SWFTI.
“They did a very good job of bringing attention to funding transportation in Southwest Florida,” Feder said, singling out U.S. 41 and I-75 funding as the group’s most important accomplishment.
It’s difficult to say how much of the $1 billion SWFTI deserves credit for, and how much of it would have come Southwest Florida’s way without the group’s help, Feder said.
“I can tell you having SWFTI helped,” he said.
The success of the organization shows that the Southwest Florida development community can accomplish a lot when it works together, Ellis said.
“Instead of becoming confrontational, everyone has banned together and it has worked,” Ellis said. “At that beginning we all complained that we weren’t getting our fair share of the transportation dollars. But that didn’t change until we did something about it.”